Buffett has largely been alone for some time in his role as benevolent billionaire to the print industry, occasionally having to defend his purchases. Now he appears to have started a trend.

Last year, Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway bought 28 daily papers for a total of $344 million, he wrote in his annual letter to shareholders. That sum is a pittance for the giant Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate, though a lot when it comes to spending on newspapers.

“Charlie and I love newspapers and, if their economics make sense,” he wrote in his annual letter.

He has mostly cited the importance of local news, focusing on metro papers with a core city audience.

“Newspapers continue to reign supreme, however, in the delivery of local news,” he said. “If you want to know what’s going on in your town – whether the news is about the mayor or taxes or high school football – there is no substitute for a local newspaper that is doing its job.”

The Boston Globe would likely have fit Buffett’s description as a metro paper in a major city that focuses more on delivering news about its hometown than being sold in far off lands. Henry, the principal owner of the Boston Red Sox, sounded an awful lot like Buffett in his comments about buying the paper for $70 million in cash from the New York Times Co.

“This is a thriving, dynamic region that needs a strong, sustainable Boston Globe playing an integral role in the community’s long-term future,” Henry said.

The Washington Post might be a bit more global than the traditional Buffett-buy, though he has long held an investment in the parent company, Washington Post Co., and sat on its board of directors for 25 years until 2011.

Berkshire, as of July, held 27.9% of the company’s stock. Those shares are jumping 5.5% to $599.85 in after-hours trading, on the verge of breaking $600 for the first time since 2008. The stock is already up 56% this year.

Bezos also says all the Buffett-like things about buying the legendary paper.

But he also talks up the changing landscape, an issue Buffett rarely hits when he talks about buying a paper.

“There will of course be change at The Post over the coming years. That’s essential and would have happened with or without new ownership,” Bezos wrote. “The Internet is transforming almost every element of the news business: shortening news cycles, eroding long-reliable revenue sources, and enabling new kinds of competition, some of which bear little or no news-gathering costs. There is no map, and charting a path ahead will not be easy. We will need to invent, which means we will need to experiment.”